Cannabidiol dilutes THC's effect on memory

To make it more confusing, in parts of the US at least "skunk" is more associated with indica-dominant hybrid strains than it is with pure sativas. I agree with the other poster - generalizing about "hash" (CBD levels could vary greatly) and "herbal cannabis blends" - the terminology used in this study leaves it completely incoherent.

There are so many things with this study and article that are not sound.

On one level 'skunk' can mean differnet things.

Around the world it refers to a certain strain of cannabis sativa. In the UK skunk seems to mean potent, fragrant or high grade cannabis to many people.

Then there is this statement:

"only users of 'skunk'-type strains exhibited impaired recall when intoxicated, whereas people who smoked hashish or herbal cannabis blends performed equally well whether they were stoned or sober".

This also confuses things further as some types of hash are made from cannabis sativa and are there fore low in CBD. Not to mention the term 'herbal cannabis blends' - what does that even mean? Cannabis and mint? Isn't all cannabis refered to as 'herbal'? And the term 'blends' tend to mean an admixture of some type.

For the sake of trying to make sense of this bizarre study we will assume the authors mean 'skunk' being cannabis sativa strains versus cannabis indica strains. Since sativa has lower levels of CBD, while cannabis indica can have very high amounts of CBD.

Sativa types of cannabis, while lower in CBD than cannabis indica strains, are also known for being more clear headed, motivated and energetic feeling than indicas.

Pure Indica strains are also known to make people more lazy, tired and even sleepy.

So much so that while some people who may think cannabis causes lethargy or laziness, it may be because they have never had cannabis sativa (indicas are significantly more commonly encountered due to factors such as easier growing techniques).

Any demonstratable memory impairment caused by cannabis consumption in laboratories has also shown to last longer than the day of consumption, though seems to be unnaccountable for after a few weeks without consumption.

This alone shows that on one hand the memory impairing effects of the cannabis being consumed are both not permanent and could also easily last longer than the availability of the variety of the current sample a cannabis user has at home, for cannabis suppliers and users go through different batches regularly.

Further more human memory changes through out the day depending upon sleep and other factors such as diet.

Beyond all of this, being that cannabis indica is much more common than cannabis sativa, it seems highly unlikely that cannabis would be commonly associated with memory impairment since the kind which impairs memory (according to this study) is so much less commonly available.